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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25985593">Blooming Grove Cafe</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrynth/pseuds/Amrynth'>Amrynth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU August, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops &amp; Cafés, Barista Caduceus, Caduceus just knows everyone, Cat Cafe, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:01:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,148</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25985593</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrynth/pseuds/Amrynth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Even if Caduceus didn't mean to open a cafe, he has one, and everyone seems to come to him with problems that are best solved with cats and a pot of tea.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blooming Grove Cafe</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Day 17 of AU August was "Cat Cafe"!  I've had the idea of Caduceus running a tea shop for a while so this gave me the chance to explore it a little.  Hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Caduceus hadn’t intended to open a cafe, let alone a cat cafe.  But he had intended to let people in to drink tea and then they’d insisted on paying sometimes and it made people feel better to know how much they should pay so he’d made something of a menu.  And when the nearby animal shelter had too many cats, Keyleth (one of the volunteers at the shelter) had asked if his cafe wanted any cats.  Well, what cafe didn’t want cats?  Before he knew it, Caduceus’s place had gotten a reputation as a place to relax with teas of mysterious and delicious origins and pet cats and just temporarily find peace away from the rest of the world.  He didn’t actually know what wifi was, but if you were a health inspector he was certain he didn’t have it.</p>
<p>He called it the Blooming Grove.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>“Hey Caduceus, do you mind if I put this here?”  Jester was louder than necessary, standing over by the bulletin board with a flyer in her hands.  </p>
<p>“No, but what is it?” He asked, wandering over to see.  </p>
<p>Caduceus was at least a foot taller than most people but Jester was shorter than most so he towered over her.  Even with the slightly stooped shoulders of someone who had made a habit of slouching to be shorter, Jester only came up to his mid-chest.  The blue tiefling grinned up at him, wearing a flouncy dress today that he couldn’t have even guessed what it was made of.  </p>
<p>“It’s a flyer for Traveller Con, which is going to be really awesome and you should come.  And oh.  My.  Gosh.  Caduceus, the Traveller is going to be there,” she enthused.  </p>
<p>“Wow.  That’s really something.  I don’t even know who that is but that’s really great,” he leaned to look at the flyer in her hands.  </p>
<p>She took her time choosing a pin off the board, eventually selecting a pink one “because pink was the most delicious color” and put her flyer in the center of the board.  Caduceus returned to his counter and started to combine a few different things together to begin a tea for Jester.</p>
<p>“Sooo, Caduceus did you learn to make the pink drink yet?” she asked, dropping her sketchbook on a table by the window.  </p>
<p>“I don’t even know what that is.  No, I think today is a good day for Mrs. Smith and maybe Peppermint,” he brought over a tray with a timer and a pot of tea starting to steep.  At the same time he set it down, one of the cats, a calico with a clipped ear and a missing eye hopping into the chair beside her.  </p>
<p>“Which one am I supposed to drink?  Is it Mrs. Smith or Peppermint?” Jester asked, scritching under the cat’s chin.  </p>
<p>She was asking if the cat was Peppermint or Mrs. Smith, as Caduceus didn’t seem to find it strange that his teas were named like people as often as not.  He failed to understand the question entirely, blinking at the tea he’d just delivered.  </p>
<p>“I think that’s really between you and the cat if she wants you to drink her.”</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>It was raining outside and she was soaked from head to toe, dripping onto Caduceus’s counter.  Beau had a steaming mug of tea in front of her and the longest face he had ever seen on her.</p>
<p>“No, you don’t understand, man.  She was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and she was fucking.  Ripped.  Could have crushed me with her thighs and I didn’t even get her name.  I just. Made the most embarrassing noise with my mouth.  And she saved my life, man.  I almost fell on the subway tracks and.  And I let her get away.”  She was lamenting her morning.  The crush of morning traffic had almost landed her in front of an oncoming train until a tall woman with braids had saved her.  </p>
<p>“Do you want to put up a flyer?” That was the usual response to someone missing.  </p>
<p>“What’s the point, dude?”  She dropped her head onto the counter with a thump.  </p>
<p>Caduceus picked up the towel he’d been idly wiping up rain drips and roughly toweled off Beauregard’s head for her.  “Well.  If she’s as distinctive as you say I’m sure you’ll see her again.  There’s what, only a few million people in the city so you’re bound to find her.  Right?”</p>
<p>“Caduceus those are terrible odds,” she said to the counter top.  </p>
<p>One of the recent cats in the cafe, Pickles, was winding around Beau’s ankles and took this opportunity to jump into her lap and squish into the space between her thighs and her torso.  </p>
<p>“What is.  What’s it doing?” she asked, sitting up and glaring suspiciously down at the cat.</p>
<p>“Oh, Pickles likes you.  Are the odds that bad?  What would the odds of a tall, muscular woman with braids and mismatched eyes walking in in about five seconds be?” he asked, still sounding conversational.  </p>
<p>“Fucking.  Astronomic.  That’s like red string of fate shit, okay?  It’s not going to happen unless we’re supposed to meet,” Beau waved her hand as she talked, nearly knocking over her mug.</p>
<p>Behind her, the door jingled and a tall woman walked in, dripping rain water onto the already damp floor.  Her hair was grey and back and styled into braids and it was crazy to Caduceus how she matched the very detailed description Beau had given him of her savior.  </p>
<p>“Hi, welcome to the Blooming Grove,” he said.  </p>
<p>“Hello.”  Her voice was soft and almost shy.</p>
<p>Beauregard jumped up like the cat had bitten her and Pickles jumped onto the counter rather than get thrown onto the floor.  “Oh fuck.  Oh fuck.”  She froze for a second and she and the tall woman met eyes.  A low noise that was almost a word dropped from Beauregard’s mouth and immediately after she bolted into the storage room.</p>
<p>“Is she alright?  Sometimes I have that effect on people,” the woman said apologetically.  </p>
<p>Caduceus smiled and stroked Pickles to soothe her feelings.  “She’s fine, that’s just her.”</p>
<p>“I’m putting these flyers up all over, do you mind if I put one up here?” she held the flyer out to him.  </p>
<p>Caduceus took the sheet of paper from her and found he was looking at a real missing person flyer.  Mollymauk Tealeaf.  </p>
<p>“Is this a friend of yours?” he asked, eyes lingering on the purple tiefling before looking back up at the woman.  </p>
<p>“Family, actually,” she answered.  </p>
<p>“Of course you can put this up.  And you are?  I’m asking for my friend now.  Is this your number?  She’s hoping you might, what was the phrase she used?  Crush her with your thighs?  That sounds nice.”</p>
<p>When the tall woman smiled her face transformed and softened and she was suddenly beautiful.  “I remember her.  I’m Yasha.  Here’s a second flyer, if she wants to give me a call.”  </p>
<p>On her way out the door, Yasha stopped by the bulletin board and put her flyer up, then stepped out into the rain just as a flash of lightning lit the street up.  There was something about the picture on the flyer that had caught Caduceus’s attention and he walked over flip deeper into the layers of paper on the board until he found what he wanted.  A much older missing person flyer with a purple tiefling: Lucien.  </p>
<p>“Huh.”  </p>
<p>He blinked at the two tieflings and wondered if there was a connection, they looked similar but the flyer Yasha had put up showed someone who was happy and extravagant.  Caduceus had a hard time imagining the dour, purple face of Lucien smiling like that.  Perhaps they were brothers?  He folded the older flyer so that it was just the old photo side by side with the one Yasha had put up.  If they were both missing, perhaps they could be missing together and so neither would be alone.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>“Is this free?”  </p>
<p>Nott was sitting on the counter, a jar of biscotti in her arms and one of them already in her mouth.  </p>
<p>“I guess so.  It’s really what you want to pay for them,” Caduceus answered.  </p>
<p>They had this discussion everyday, Nott halfway through devouring something before she thought to ask if it had a cost.  He didn’t mind, if the little goblin girl needed an entire jar of biscotti, he didn’t see a problem with that.  </p>
<p>“What are they made out of?” she asked, shoving the rest of the biscotti into her mouth and fishing a second one out.</p>
<p>“Mushrooms mostly.”</p>
<p>There was a pause while Nott took in his words and contemplated the jar in her arms.  Apparently it wasn’t enough of a deterrent and she went back to eating them.  Caduceus smiled and walked the tray of steeping tea over to where Caleb was up to his nose in a book.  Maybe today was going to be the day, the day that Caleb had been working toward everyday for weeks.</p>
<p>“Is he looking?” Caleb asked, glancing up from his book to Caduceus.  </p>
<p>The he in question was the cat sitting on the shelf high above Caleb’s head.  It had been chance that Caleb and Nott had come in that first day, looking for a place to warm up in the middle of winter.  He’d been captivated by the cat that had recently come to live in the cafe, a shy thing that Caduceus had explained had come out of an abusive situation and just needed a place to be safe.  Frumpkin.  Daily, Caleb came in, quietly sitting beneath the shy cat and waiting.</p>
<p>“He sees you.  This is some catnip tea today, maybe it will be good for the both of you,” Caduceus answered, placing tea and one biscotti rescued from Nott on the table.  </p>
<p>“Thank you, Mister Clay.”  </p>
<p>“Oh now.  Mister Clay really is my father, Caduceus will be fine.”  </p>
<p>He returned to the counter, wiping up biscotti crumbs and chatting with Nott about the various uses of mushrooms.  Her interests seemed a little more lethal than his interests in cooking, but sometimes the two did overlap.  They were intent on their conversation and nearly missed it.  The shadow emerging from his safe place above Caleb’s seat.  Frumpkin slunk down and lighted on the bench next to Caleb who had gone completely still so as not to scare the cat away.  </p>
<p>“That’s just nice.  Isn’t that nice Nott?  It just shows that no one is made by the situation they’re put into.  Right?”</p>
<p>Nott made a squelching noise as she blew her nose on a napkin.  “Oh Caleb.”</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>He sneezed three times while filling out the application, assuring Caduceus that it was just allergies each time.  No, no, he wasn’t sick.  But between the half-orc walking into the Blooming Grove and by the time he handed the application over to him, his eyes had become lined with red and he had a definite sniffle.  </p>
<p>“Here, have a drink  while I look this over.  On the house,” Caduceus passed him a chocolate scone and a mug of tea that smelled vaguely floral.  “Why is it you want to work here, Fjord?”  </p>
<p>“Well you see, I can’t stay in the city if I don’t have a job and there’s this girl.  She’s the one who told me about this place,” he drawled, fidgeting with a necklace like a yellow eye nervously.  “She really likes it here.  Jester, do you know her?”</p>
<p>Oh how interesting.  Caduceus hadn’t met someone who used an accent that wasn’t their own before.  “I do know her.  Fluffy dresses, likes to draw phalluses?”  </p>
<p>“That uh.  That would be the one.”  Fjord’s face turned a darker shade of green.  “I’d really like to impress her, you know?  And I don’t-”  He looked off into the distance as though actually seeing something off in the west.  “It’s not safe if I have to go back.”</p>
<p>“Oh Fjord!”  </p>
<p>The door slammed open and started the half-orc out of the middle space he’d been looking into.  The color in his cheeks deepened when he turned to look at the door where Jester had just flounced in.  </p>
<p>“Well hey there, Jessie,” he smiled though, on seeing her, glowing almost like the sun.</p>
<p>“Did you get it?  Did you get the job?”  She put her sketchbook at the table by the window, but her eyes remained on Fjord.  </p>
<p>“Uh.”</p>
<p>“Oh he did.  Really aced this application.  Super.  Super good.  All around aces,” Caduceus answered the question.  “Welcome to the family, Fjord.”</p>
<p>Fjord smiled and then immediately sneezed.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>He’d never meant to open a cafe, let alone a cat cafe.  But he’d never meant to find a family while he was out in the world looking for his own.  Caduceus had just wanted a place to share tea and had found a misfit group of regulars he couldn’t imagine living without.</p>
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